NEWTOWN — An international search for the best memorial to honor Sandy Hook massacre victims has been narrowed to three - with plans to choose a final design by summer’s end.

“We are very, very impressed with all three designs,” says Alan Martin, vice chair of the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission, which has taken five years to reach this point. “It’s going to be a very hard decision to say “no” to two of them.”

The designs, which have been tailored to 5 acres near the new Sandy Hook School, make use of the site’s woods and water bodies while featuring nature in distinctive ways.

“How could we possibly speak to such a horrific tragedy which was felt by the nation and beyond, and yet was deeply intimate to the community of Newtown?” reads the design narrative of a proposal called “The Clearing,” by San Francisco-based SWA Group.

The answer, the firm said, is a walk in nature, centered by a pond with a sycamore planted in the middle.

“Walking clears the mind and promotes reflection and aids in the healing process,” the SWA proposal reads.

A second design by an Arizona-based architect who specializes in “poetic interventions,” features a garden of fountain-fed planting beds - one for each of the 20 children and six educators who were slain at Sandy Hook School in 2012.

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“This memorial garden celebrates the lives that were tragically lost and provides a serene environment for reflection, remembrance and healing,” reads the narrative for the proposal, called “Sandy Hook Memorial Garden,” by Arleo Design Studio.

The third design also treats nature as a sacred sanctuary. Among the design elements are a “breathing field,” and a “belonging bench.”

“At the core of our design is the notion that the earth has an inexplicable ability to hold us and cradle our sorrows,” reads the narrative of “Let the earth hold us + heal us,” by Minnesota-based Damon Farber Landscape Architects and RSP Dreambox, and New Haven-based Svigals + Partners.

If the Connecticut firm seems familiar, perhaps it’s because the same company designed the $50 million Sandy Hook School, which opened in 2016. The new Sandy Hook School, which achieved a balance between warmth and security, replaced the school that was razed after the worst crime in Connecticut history.

Martin insists there was no favoritism involved in choosing Svigals + Partners as a finalist.

He notes that the commission started its search blind by requiring firms to submit designs anonymously. Only after the finalists were narrowed from 188 international entries were the names of the firms revealed.

“There is no question that the design and the implementation of the Sandy Hook School was absolutely wonderful, but we’re impressed with all three of these designs,” Martin said.

The plan is to recommend a design to the Board of Selectman in September, and reserve money to pay for it in the town’s capital improvement plan.

From there, the firm could begin construction in the spring, and Newtown could plan to dedicate the memorial on the seventh anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre, Dec. 14, 2019.